Tax havens refuse cooperation with Pakistan

Pakistan has been unable to get much cooperation from 11 countries known as tax havens around the world to share information on offshore wealth amid a global clampdown on tax evasion.

Under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) new automatic exchange of information programme, effective since September 1, 2018, more than 101 countries have agreed for automatic exchange of financial information.

The list of intended exchange partners is being finalised pending negotiations among member countries in the past couple of years.

As per the agreed list, the tax haven countries which apparently did not show the willingness to share information with Pakistan are Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Niue, Panama and Samoa.

Pakistan is currently investigating data of three leaks about Pakistani offshore investments and — two leaks related to tax havens — Panama and Bahamas — which did not offer to share automatic information with Pakistan under the new tax convention.